On September 30, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented a constitutional reform initiative that seeks to modify the electricity sector, strengthening the Federal electricity commission (CFE), while the commissions that regulated that sector disappear.
In the framework of the webinar “Challenges and opportunities for distributed generation compared to the T-MEC“, organized by Solar Power Mexico, the experts spoke out against this initiative as they assure that if approved, the country would suffer negative economic consequences in addition to putting the international environmental agreements already signed at risk.
During her participation, Mónica Lugo, director of Institutional Relations PRODENSA, considered that the reform proposal contains several points that go against what is established in the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) and even in other agreements such as the one in Paris.
He gave as an example chapters such as 8 that talks about sovereignty over hydrocarbons where, among several issues, it is stipulated that Mexico cannot adopt more restrictive measures than those that it has already adopted in other treaties, or chapter 14 where investments to this are protected. sector if there are changes in the rules.
“There are also other chapters that could violate this initiative, which are not being considered, and if there are clauses that new guidelines for the respect of air emissions and the use of renewable energies and that is found in the environment chapter, even in that there would be an indirect violation so that it would not be respecting that treaty and not only that but others such as the Treaty of Paris, ”says Mónica Lugo.
The PRODENSA spokeswoman added that if the changes to the rules are approved, it would result in lawsuits for millions of dollars and as an indirect consequence the disincentive for investments and therefore capital outflows.
For his part, Severo López, General Director of Galo Energy, pointed out that the energetic reform proposed by the current Government does not fulfill a technical purpose that can sustain it and has rather political ends.
“The modification of the Electricity Law must be understood from a political context, since what is being done does not make sense. It is important to specify that the objective of this modification is to strengthen the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and that will not be achieved because we continue with the same problem from 40 years ago, which is the financial capacity of the Mexican state to invest and eat up all the growth of the energy sector, it will not meet the technical end that is intended ”, Indian.
Likewise, Leonardo G. Velasco Ochoa, president of AMIF, agrees that the proposal has more political elements and an ideological background. “It is worrying because it is not about belonging to one party or another, I have seen how Pemex and the CFE they have been the object of a lot of corruption for many six-year terms, however, taking away participation from the private initiative is going to affect us all ”.
Distributed generation
Likewise, the specialists pointed out the importance of the current government also promoting the use of clean energies, relying on international treaties.
In such a way that Severo López pointed out that Distributed Generation represents the future of electric power and by wanting to minimize it, the government is not doing a good reading of how the market is.
“It is not about not letting the contrary go out on the field, it is about understanding how the game has changed and what kind of training you must have to go out and play,” he said.
“The energy transition is coming, an alignment towards energy change and if companies are not seeing this, they are endangering their very existence, Distributed Generation, for example, will be a dominant technology.”
Velasco Ochoa added that the Distributed generation is fundamental in the global fight against climate change and key for the development of the smart cities of the future, so the T-MEC It is a good opportunity for cooperation between the three signatory countries to promote their development since with its implementation multiple benefits and advantages are obtained, from a higher quality and cheaper energy, to a guaranteed supply without interruptions.
“We must take advantage of the recent renewed environmental commitments, perhaps it is time to propose bilateral agreements for the tariff deregulation of photovoltaic equipment with these countries, a factor that prevents this is the tariff restrictions. The T-MEC it represents an opportunity to have efficient, transparent customs processes and, above all, aware of the seriousness of climate change ”.
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx